64 
DEPARTMENT OF ANTIQUITIES. [GROUND 
At this end of the room are several sculptures, not yet ar- 
ranged, but of which the most important may be mentioned : — 
On the East side of the doorway, an undraped life-size statue of a 
youth, probably Cupid, of the finest workmanship. 
On the West side, the lower portion of a draped female figure. 
On the table adjoining the Cupid, a cast from a mutilated female 
head of very fine style ; a trophy, or stand of armour, found at Marathon ; 
a mutilated colossal head of Nemesis, from her temple at Rhamnus ; 
two or three small statues : and in the lower compartment, various 
fragments of the pedimental figures of the Parthenon. 
In the North-east angle of the room is a female statue, of somewhat 
early character, found in the temple of Themis, at Rhamnus. 
Against the Western wall of this room it is intended to 
arrange the Greek inscriptions. 
SECOND ELGIN ROOM. 
As the principal portion of the series of sculptures from 
the Parthenon is here exhibited, forming the chief contents of 
this Room, a short account of that building may be prefixed 
to the description. The most ancient temple of Minerva, 
called the Hecatompedon, which stood on the summit of the 
Acropolis of Athens, having been burnt by the Persians, B.C. 
480, a more splendid edifice was erected between thirty and 
forty years afterwards, during the administration of Pericles. 
It was constructed of Pentelic marble, in the Doric order of 
architecture, and was of the form termed peripteral octostyle. 
The architect was Ictinus, but the sculptural decorations were 
executed from the designs and under the direction of Phidias. 
Two models, made by Mr. R. C, Lucas, are placed in this 
room, one of which represents the building as it is believed to 
liave been in its original state, the other as it appeared in A.D. 
1687, immediately after the bombardment of Athens by the 
Venetian General, Morosini, when a shell, falling into the 
middle of the temple, exploded a powder-magazine established 
there by the Turks, and laid the adjoining portion in ruins. 
It will be seen from these models that the cella, or enclosed 
Imilding within the colonnade, was decorated externally with a 
continuous frieze in low relief, whilst the entablature sur- 
mounting the colonnade had a frieze formed of metopes 
